


The Mad Dreamers

by Queen_of_Typos (orphan_account)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Inspired by Novel, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 08:09:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5658961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Queen_of_Typos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Its energy connects and binds us...."</i>
  <br/>
</p><hr/><p>Rey is a woman of practicality.</p><p>Somehow, she'd never expected to find herself here, in the middle of a small and reclusive town, with a band of eccentrics dealing with the occult. That is, until she begins to experience the disturbances in the fabled Force she'd scoffed for so long.</p><p>It becomes apparent that her newly-woken abilities, channeling Force's powers, could redefine everything she and her companions know about the world.</p><p>And they're not the only ones who covet that power and knowledge<br/></p><hr/><p>Everyone has secrets. Some just happen to be more dire than others.</p><p>Kylo Ren, formerly known as Ben Solo, has secrets buried into such deep recesses of his heart and mind that they would accompany him into the afterlife. He's one of the special ones, ones who are susceptible to the Force's powers. He knows that something is afoot, that something has disturbed the Force. Something that he must find at all costs.</p><p>But like the Force, his secrets are rising up to the surface.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there, dear readers~
> 
> I would like to thank you all very much for purely clicking on this story.
> 
> This story is set in a modern day AU, though, as you can discern from my poorly-written blurb, the Force still exists. I was partly inspired to write this, based off the book series, The Raven Cycle, by Maggie Stiefvater, but it will diverge quite quickly, though the main themes and plotlines from both Star Wars and The Raven Cycle will be present, or at least heavily alluded to.
> 
> This is my first story that will be multi-chapter, so I hope that my plot is properly-paced, and that my grammar is tolerable. Feel welcome to leave constructive criticisms, or just what you think of this, down below; I would absolutely love feedback!
> 
> Happy reading, and may the Force be with you~

Eleven o’clock, at night, in a nondescript small town.

A sleek black car pulls up to a row of houses in a slow, yet predatory manner, its lights the only illumination on the street, save for a couple of sputtery streetlights. It stalls, then parks in front of the fifth house down the row, the driver’s door opening.

A shadowy, tall figure steps out. Wearing a long, black coat that concealed its figure from neck to ankles, it peers around in cautious calculation, before circling around the car to the sidewalk. Face hidden and concealed beneath a black mask, it seems to peer around for a moment, calculating but almost cautious.

It presses against the shadows- there is so much darkness, it could have been mistaken for another shadow. The specter makes its way boldly but silently up the steps to the house, yanking the locked door open as if it were so much cardboard.


	2. Chapter 2

In the bright of the next morning, a young English woman pulled up to the house in a vintage-looking car, which her somewhat mentor and honorary foster father Han, husband to her mentor and honorary foster mother Professor Organa, had lent to her- a sleek, though aged vehicle he had affectionately dubbed the Millennium Falcon.

Her name was Rey, and she was currently a freshman in university, at age 19. Her business here was on the behest of her teachers, and as part of a most peculiar summer field trip.

Several weeks back, she had been personally invited by Professor Organa, the diminutive yet imposing professor of history and former big-time politician, to join them on this journey. At first, she was hesitant- after all, she was a scholarship student from the United Kingdom whose tab was barely covered and had to work part-time to pay the smaller and unconsidered costs. Also, she was highly skeptical of the nature of the trip; namely, they were tracing some energy field out into a town that was nestled at the foot of the mountains.

Of course, the entire business took quite a bit of arrangement and forethought, and in the end, having good connections won out, and Professor Organa had contacted her tearaway husband (the entire class was especially fond of him for his ceaselessly fascinating stories of his youth as a swashbuckling movie star), who’d then reached into his rather disreputable network of friends, pinpointing one very old acquaintance of both the husband and wife.

Maz Kanata was a woman somewhere between middle age and elderliness, petite and dark-skinned, with glasses that literally took up half of her face. She’d owned a restaurant and a small hotel, somewhere about 30 miles north of their destination.

It took time to rent a house, and Maz had happily surrendered most of the rooms in her hotel to the dozen or so staff and students who had come calling, tab left unmentioned. Meanwhile, Tekka and Poe had gone down to the town, and had managed to acquire a house (four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two stories) within a month, wonders of all.

Professor Tekka had returned to them at Maz’s, knowing that Poe preferred to have him safe, rather than out in the unknown like he and his cat, Beebee, were.

After her sojourn at Maz’s hotel the night before, having stayed overnight there to (party and/or yell at her rowdy partying housemates) look up meaningful information about their so-called Force on the internet on the much more reliable wifi signal Maz had, she was apparently to join Poe. Thus, the late-night coffee, the endless sifting through the numerous newsletters, forums, and websites, courtesy of the internet, and meticulously translating them into coherent but detailed passages that she printed out, highlighting the most important aspects of the pieces.

An early rise at around 6 AM, a hasty change of clothing, and a breakfast mostly dominated by coffee later, Rey was on her way to meet up with Poe, giving over information on their search as well as information regarding the fact that they were to have company over- several others would soon join them from their closer base of operations, including Jess, Connix, Brance, and Professor Organa among them.

She hummed as she let a leisurely pace of 10 miles an hour take her down the tiny and sleepy main street of town, marvelling once again at how someplace so small and unassuming and insignificant was going to be the place to bear witness to the mysticism that one would usually associate with the Nazca Lines or Stonehenge or some other such thing.

Not that she believed in it so entirely, that Force that she constantly heard them talking about. Professor Organa had insisted that she herself had manifested in the form of premonitions, though Rey had merely nodded and humored her teacher, a skeptical eyebrow mentally raised.

It was something that supposedly had flowed all around every one of them, a living and breathing life force. An energy bond that tethered them to the earth and each other, she'd heard. There was no disputing its existence, and most people were aware of it- subconsciously or consciously. What had really mattered was the extent of this Force, the extent of control one could have over it. Only a few could actually channel the power of it.

She had informed them that it reminded her of some novel she had read as a child when they briefed her on it, though she had insisted that the Force was very much real, thank you, but she was skeptical over its more ESP like qualities.

Still, it was quite a bonding experience- a collection of students and teachers from several departments at their university, taking off on this summer trip in pursuit of this hypothetical Force’s resting ground.

It was that thought that stuck in her head as she pulled up in from of the house.

Even as she approached it, she began to feel a strange hum along her spine, peculiar and pulling and terribly grating, almost as if fingers were digging and dragging themselves across the nape of her neck.

The front door was wrenched from its sockets at a peculiar angle, though whomever had done so had attempted to replace it with an extreme clumsiness.

It would have almost been pathetically amusing, save for the fact that this was her house- well, not technically hers, but one of her closest friends lived here- it had been broken into, the locked door having been exactly zero protection against whatever horrors lay in the night.

She shuddered, parking the car and locking the doors as she made sure that her pocketknife and pepper spray was in her bag. When they’d started out on the expedition, Han Solo and Professor Organa had insisted that everyone procure some of the stinging solution with an sardonically ominous, “You’ll be needing it.”

She felt certain she was being watched, and gripped the bottle of the pepper spray a bit tighter in her hands as she fumbled in opening the damaged door, laying it on the porch before beholding the hurricane-magnitude of destruction within.

Rey gulped, glancing at the shambles within the building from its threshold. “Poe?” She called out. Not hearing- or expecting a response, she gingerly stepped into the utterly ransacked and pillaged foyer, careful amid the dismembered furniture and broken glass.

She had ventured no further than a few paces down the hall when she noticed the deep gouges on the walls.

There was no blood, but she picked out the fresh marks, slash marks, left cruelly as if by the sharp claws of a feral animal. Half an inch deep, gouging the wall for perhaps a dozen inches or so, marked in vicious patterns and slicing up the plaster in strangely geometric clumps.

She shuddered and averted her gaze from the marks on the wall, turning away as she made her way down the hall, as quietly and as quickly as she dared; though she often glanced back apprehensively at the gouges, wary of pursuit and of surveillance.

The woman jumped and reached for the pepper spray as something flashed by the corner of her eyes, yet relaxed upon realizing that it was merely a mirror that showed her reflection, hanging haphazardly off the wall.

Gingerly picking her way around, she made a thorough sweep of all the rooms, both upstairs and downstairs. Having repeated the process of holding a bottle of pepper spray at the door whenever she prepared to tug one open, over a dozen times, she returned, frightened, to the foyer, heart pounding hard in her throat.

Rey glanced around herself, taking in one last scan of the destruction, before nimbly stepping out of the house with the urgency of being pursued.

And pursued, she was, as something bolted, hissing, out of a bush in a flash of bronzed orange and beige.

Rey stifled a cry of fear and whirled around to face her assailant, knife at hand. An inquisitive mew answered her actions, and she glanced down, seeing a familiar orange cat at her feet.

“Beebee!” Rey cried out in relieved surprise, kneeling down to scoop up the scruffy cat.

She held the nervy thing to her chest, running the rest of the way until she had reached the relative safety of the Falcon.

She fumbled for her purse, pulling it into her lap and pulling out a cell phone, swiping furiously at the screen and jabbing the touchscreen keys before holding the phone to her ear.

“Rey?” A voice, clear and commanding, had picked up after about two rings.

Her relief was palatable. “Jess, thank god.” Rey had slouched down slightly, peeking around for signs of stalkers, before taking a deep breath and plunging in. “You need to get either Organa, Tekka, or Solo on the phone, now. House has been broken into, No sign of Poe, mass detriment in the place. Also, I have a weird and creepy feeling about being watched and followed. Beebee is with me .”

Jess nods, though feels a bit silly immediately afterwards, as Rey cannot see her or the dumbstruck and horrified look on her face. “Yeah, Rey. Hold on just a min, I'm getting them.”

She covers the mouthpiece of the receiver and turns to the crowd gathering at her back, straining to discern the garbled effect of the muffled transmission and translate it into comprehensible words.

“It's not good.” She announces grimly. “Someone's after us, and they've got Poe.

The room bursts into clamor as soon as the ill tiding has escaped from her lips.

"What, wait, how-"

"Shit, no-"

"We're doomed-"

"OH my god-"

Professor Organa clears her throat, and immediately, the chatter ebbs. "I know." She states so simply, but with a voice so full of conviction and strain and determination. "Poe was a trusted and loved student. We will rescue him. But now, our objective is to bring Rey back and safe as well."

While she was talking, the professor had come to the front of the small group, everyone stepping to the side, parting a path for her like the sea before Moses.

She does not have to speak, but nonetheless, the phone changes hands.

"Rey?" A pause.

The others, feeling a bit guilt suddenly for eavesdropping, all slink back to their usual routine. Jess stays out, however, as does one of her classmates, Connix. She gives the other girl a sidelong glance as Connix sidles up rather stiffly, tucking her stray blonde wisps of hair into the double buns that used to be trademark of their near-celebrity professor.

"I understand." Leia replies after another long interval.

Jess can discern somewhat agitated warbling at the other end, before Leia cuts in. "I know Poe is your friend. And I know you want to find him."  She says soothingly, though persuasively. "But we're worried about you as well."

Whatever Rey's response was, it satisfied Organa, and with a few murmured reassurances, she hangs up.

"What was it you wanted to see me about?" Professor Organs asks, showing no hint of surprise at the presence of two.

Connix steps foward. "I was wondering whether you would like for us to call the police?"

Leia leans against the wall, letting out a soft and sad sigh. For the first time, the girls noticed how hunched she was, how weary she must be to be holding up everyone's morales, when she needed a morale boost more than Jess or Connix did.

The older woman shakes her head. "No, we're on our own now."


	3. Chapter 3

“Do I talk first or you talk first? I talk first?” Poe’s cocky grin was recognizable, even under the black eye and bloody nose he now possessed. Unable to stem the flow of blood either from his nose or his temple, smile transforming into a grimace, feeling the filth coat his face as if it were some mask like the ones worn by the interrogators standing passively before him.

The foremost one, the one who had taken him capture the night before, speaks. “Tell us about the map.” it orders, voice deep and textured, emanating from behind the blank mask.

“We will not be intimidated by you!” He retorts, eyebrows clenching and forming a pucker in his forehead.

The figure made a sound so light that Poe could have been mistaken, one that sounded like rage and contempt and disgust all balled into a messy package.

It strode several paces forward, raising a hand to the captive’s head, and suddenly, Poe cried out, the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground in agony being the restraints with which he was bound. "Tell us about the map.” The interrogator demanded again.

He blinked back tears as his vision began to swim before him, teeth snagging on his lip as his head underwent the sensation of being crushed by a vise, repeatedly.

The young man hissed in pain, though his expression was defiant. The pressure began to lessen until he sighed in relief, before it resurged at a higher intensity, practically all but locking out the sound of anything but a high-pitched scream, reverberating in his bones. “I’ll tell you!” He finally screamed.

* * *

Poe bowed his head as he trudged out of the interrogation room, hanging his head in utter despair and shame as the solitary guard behind him. What had he done? His bitter lament was cut short as his escort practically plowed him into a niche in the corridor, tugging the mask from his face and revealing a dark-skinned young man with a square jaw, a rather flat nose, and most importantly, a frank face.

“This is a rescue. Just stay calm, and do exactly as I say.” The guard says, furtiveness and desperation in his voice as he glances around.

“Why are you helping me?” Poe demanded, sure to keep his voice low.

“Because it’s the right thing to do!” The guard hissed back.

A grin broke slowly across Poe’s face. “You need a driver.” He accused, though he sounded thrilled, not betrayed, by the idea.

The other man sighs, though jumps back a bit, as if stung. With chagrin, he nods. “I need a driver.”

Poe hesitates just enough to hear the other man draw in a sharp breath of anticipation, before asking, “So, what do we need to do?”

A few moments later, the man was walking back out, nonchalantly, into the garage, holding Poe at a firm, though not injurious angle whilst they passed by hordes upon hordes of people who wore similar uniform as Poe’s escape partner did, and were all.

A large wave came towards them, leading the young guard to visibly balk. "Ok, stay calm, stay calm, stay calm." He muttered.

"I am calm." Poe says, throwing a look that bordered on amusement at his "captor".

"I was talking to myself." The guard says righteously.

As soon as the crowd of them passed, the man grasped Poe by the elbow and pulled him behind one of the cars.

"All good?" He asked in a breath. Poe nods and holds his thumb up. "Let's go!" The guard commands, motioning to the driver's seat and then rushing around to the other side, throwing himself in the passenger seat.

Before long, the motor has started, and they had sped out of the enormous warehouse, to the alarmed cries of the uniformed masses.

Poe swore and swerved as a loud pop resounded behind him, and his guard pales, grabbing a gun from his holster and opening the window, firing rapidly at their pursuers.

"Hurry!" The guard urges, and Poe chances a glimpse in the rearview mirror. Several men were already entering their own cars.

Poe grins at his ally. "Seat belt on?"

The guard yells, "Yes, it's on! Just GO!" as Poe steps on the gas, eliciting a loud and ear-shattering screech as he went from 0 to 70 miles per hour in the space of seconds.

A similar sound escaped the guard's mouth as he clung on for dear life. Poe glances at him, a bit apologetic as he sped up the car, now somewhere near 80. He holds out a hand, keeping his other steadily trained on the wheel. "Poe."

The guard releases one hand from the headrest and grasps onto Poe's. "Finn."

"Nice to meet you." Poe offers.

"You-" Finn begins just as a rumble rocks the car. Peering back, he can just make out a half dozen or so cars speeding after them, just as their own car swerved wildly down the narrow mountain road, "too" comes out as a high-pitched scream.

Poe guns up the engine and attempts to regain control of the car as Finn lowers the window and opens fire. Bang. Bang.

That was when another bullet hits their car, this time, in the tire. Poe yells out as well as their car wrenches itself from his control. As it nears the curve in the road, Poe finally resigns himself to trying for the brakes, but the precipice is looking nearer and nearer.

At the last moment, the car seems to stop, and Finn slumps down with clear relief at escaping a death by falling of a cliff in a car, though the front wheels hang over the cliff.

That small and miniscule movement tips the precarious balance of the car, even as the pursuers approach then from behind.

As the metal underbelly screeches against the rocks, the car flips over and begins the long descent into the valley.


End file.
